<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Savior Complex by Dangobango</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29175102">Savior Complex</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangobango/pseuds/Dangobango'>Dangobango</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Development, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Self-Discovery, Self-Esteem Issues</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:27:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,711</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29175102</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangobango/pseuds/Dangobango</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I was told to torture you, but I have... different ideas.”<br/>“...huh?”</p><p>-------------</p><p>What happens when a fugitive trades one traitor for another?<br/>Exchanged for another hostage by her once-good friend, Komaru Naegi finds herself once again imprisoned and dejected. When she's suddenly offered a chance to flee, Komaru convinces the enigmatic Servant to the tyrannical Warriors of Hope to accompany her in her journey to end their sudden reign. She fears him more than she trusts him, but he claims he has been rooting for her all along. Could his ambiguous morality be the perfect contrast to her sense of justice? Will despair be the birth of true hope after all?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Komaeda Nagito &amp; Naegi Komaru, Komaeda Nagito/Naegi Komaru</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Savior Complex</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Komaru Naegi sat alone in the dark room she had been thrown in. How long has it been since she was put in here? Hours? Days? Weeks? It all felt the same when you couldn’t see the sun. She never bothered crying out for help, help she knew would never come. Her only company in all this time was the remaining echoes of her former friend’s spiteful words.</p><p> </p><p><em>  ‘...I was deceiving you and you just kept relying on me. ‘Toko! Toko!’, trusting me, like an idiot. It’s  </em>your <em>fault.’  </em></p><p>
  <em>  ‘From the very beginning, I hated you! Just being with you was insufferable!’  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>  ‘I tricked you, and you fell for it! You’re just a stupid idiot who got set up by the coward Toko Fukawa, simple as that!’  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>She was just a pawn in a set-up, something to be bartered off. Toko had her own reason to use her, to save her precious ‘Master Byakuya’ from the children. She was right; Komaru was too trusting. An idiot. The world was ending and she seriously expected someone to fall out of the sky and be her friend? She should've figured that it was too good to be true.</p><p> </p><p>The doorknob to the room she was in suddenly jiggled. Komaru gasped and covered her mouth. She heard a key being inserted and the door being unlocked. No one had come to check on her since she was brought here, what could they possibly want with her?</p><p>"Who's there?!" She cried.</p><p> </p><p>The door opened and a lanky man with messy white hair and dark clothes walked in. The Warriors of Hope’s servant. The same one that greeted her the first time she was captured. </p><p>“Hello there,” he said with a blithe smile. “It’s just me.”</p><p>"S-stay back! I'm warning you!" Komaru exclaimed. </p><p>"Now, now, no need to be hostile," he assured.</p><p>"What do you want?"</p><p>"I was told to torture you, but I have... different ideas."</p><p>"...huh?"</p><p> </p><p>Komaru looked up at the man standing before her.</p><p>He was… defying the kids? Sure, it wasn’t the first time, but his twisted mind was one to be reckoned with. Nothing he ever comes up with could be sensible.</p><p>“What do you mean, ‘different ideas’?” she asked. </p><p>“You’re free to go,” he told her.</p><p>“H-huh?! I’m… free? You’re letting me go?”</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>“After all you did to capture me?”</p><p>“Right.”</p><p>“...why?”</p><p>“I was thinking about what happened a few days ago, with you and Toko. I couldn’t get it out of my mind, and I kept wondering why. I slowly came to realize that I was secretly hoping for her to change her mind about you,” the Servant explained. “That almost feels like that would’ve been the ‘good ending’, so to speak. The two of you growing together as friends confronting despair would’ve made for an even brighter story. But, unfortunately, she stuck to her ways and her tunnel vision forced her to only think of Byakuya,” he grimaced. “I understand why, though. He was her hope, and she wasn’t afraid to give anything up for him.”</p><p>The casual retelling of the painful events did nothing to placate Komaru’s feelings. </p><p>“So, I’ve decided to let you face the kids head-on. I was growing worried about how long it was taking you to do so. Besides, what symbol of hope wastes away in a dark room like this?” he asked her. He stepped aside and gestured to the open door. “Go on. It’s about time for you to face the final boss,” he said nonchalantly. “Unless you’re giving up?”</p><p>“No, of course not!” Komaru cried out.</p><p>“Then?”</p><p> </p><p>Komaru weighed her options. This was a trap, it had to be. As elaborate of a scheme that he’s created, he surely wouldn’t just throw it away like that, right? But if he did mean it, and she did leave, then she would just be out on her own again. </p><p>
  <em> ‘I don’t think I could handle that… wait.’ </em>
</p><p>She looked up at the Servant.</p><p><em> ‘This guy believes in me, and I don’t think he’d lie, at least not about that. He might be crazy, but I guess being with him is better than being alone…’  </em>she thought.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m rooting for you, Miss Protagonist…” The Servant turned around and headed to the door.</p><p>“Wait!” Komaru cried out.</p><p>“What now?” </p><p>“Come with me!” She pleaded.</p><p>“...huh?” The Servant looked at her with a new surprised expression.</p><p>“Please… I need someone to help me, I-I can’t do this alone!” Komaru began tearing up as she fell to the floor on her knees. “I-it’s like you said before, I’m just a normal girl, a-and, of all people, you seem to be the one that believes in me the most! And, y-you know, you say you want the world to have hope, but you’re helping people who you yourself say only bring despair! It just doesn’t make any sense!”</p><p> </p><p>“I think it makes perfect sense. Have I not explained myself to you many a time? The greatest despair the world has ever seen will allow the greatest hope to rise above and smother it until it’s no more,” he told her.</p><p>“But if that’s really what you want, wouldn’t it be more helpful to want to protect hope? If despair’s just gonna rise anyway like you believe, then don’t you want to be known for fighting for what you believe in?” She countered.</p><p> </p><p>The Servant paused and looked to the side.</p><p>“You make an interesting argument. You’re the only person who’s even bothered to challenge scum like me. My thoughts about you seem to be getting closer to becoming a reality. However, if you remember, did I not tell you that I have become despair itself and that I feel no remorse over it? And you’re asking me to betray that? Well, it's not like any counterargument I make has any worth, anyway. My life will mean nothing to the world in the long run, once hope has taken its rightful place as ruler,” he monologued.</p><p> </p><p>“Betrayal? If anything, you’re betraying yourself by working with what you call evil!” Komaru stood back up. “I still have no idea what you mean by ‘I am despair itself’ but, I mean, if you want the world to have hope, that obviously can’t be true, right? There’s gotta be some hope left in you, right?” she posed.</p><p>The Servant visibly tensed, almost frozen where he stood.</p><p>“Why would you purposely set yourself up to fail when you have the chance to do what you really want? You aren’t like those kids, so why do you just let them do what <em>  they  </em> want?!”  </p><p> </p><p>“Hope left… in me…” the Servant murmured.</p><p><em>'Okay, okay, good, I’m starting to speak his language,'  </em> Komaru thought.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah!” Komaru smiled. “There’s hope in you still, I can tell. If I thought you were as bad as you say, I obviously wouldn’t be asking you to join me.”</p><p>“You… you can’t be serious about that, can you?”</p><p>“I am.”</p><p> </p><p><em>'This girl…’  </em>  the Servant thought. '<em>She believes that even I can help hope, despite my status. She might be my... no, everyone’s savior! She could be the symbol of hope that can even find a use for despair-filled trash like me! She’d be like a goddess if that’s true. She can overcome despair and finally end  </em>her <em>legacy...’  </em></p><p> </p><p>“...Alright. I’ll join you,” The Servant decided. “But would you be willing to entertain a selfish request of mine?”</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>“Once all is said and done, and your hope defeats all the despair in your path, I want you to kill me.”</p><p>“Wh- <em>kill you?!”  </em>Komaru jolted back.</p><p>“Yes,” he nodded. “I want you to kill me. All I would be is one more remnant of despair, one last lowly bug to squish beneath your foot.” </p><p>“I-I can’t do that! You’re a human being as much as anyone else, I couldn’t--”</p><p> </p><p>“I live to serve. I’m nothing but a tool to submit to and be used by others. That much, I still believe. It’s just that instead…” he paused before getting on one knee in front of her.</p><p>“Wh-what are you doing?!”</p><p>“I’m dedicating myself to hope,” he ignored the question. “Even if only temporarily. If I couldn’t see the defeat of true despair, then I want to be there to witness the birth of true hope, having been raised from the weak to be shared by all. Komaru Naegi, allow me to serve you. Let me offer my mind, body, and soul to you.”</p><p>“O-okay, sure, that’s cool and all, but can you get up off your knee? It’s really weirding me out.” </p><p>“My apologies.” He stood back up. “I never wish to bother you.”</p><p>“You weren’t <em>bothering </em>me, it’s just kinda… well, really weird. I thought you were proposing to me or something,” she laughed nervously.</p><p>“I’d never do something so arrogant.”</p><p>“Is that what you call it…?”</p><p> </p><p>The Servant turned back around again and opened the door. </p><p>“Shall we go?” He asked.</p><p>“Um, yeah!” Komaru took a couple of steps forward out the door. The Servant followed her out.</p><p> </p><p>Neither of them made it a few feet before the ground beneath them started to shake.</p><p>“What’s happening?! An earthquake?” Komaru asked in a panicked tone, trying to keep herself steady.</p><p>“I don’t think so… we need to get out of here, now,” the Servant replied.</p><p>“But what about Monaca and the others?”</p><p>“We’ll come for them later. If it’s what I think it is, at least she’ll be perfectly fine. Come on, hurry!” </p><p>The Servant guided Komaru down the hall and the crumbling stairways. They ran out the front door of Towa Hills just in time; they immediately tripped and fell to the ground following a deafening explosion. </p><p>Komaru turned and sat up. She tried to shield her eyes from the blinding light and squint to see just what happened. Once the light faded, rubble and ashes were all that remained of the large building. She looked around and saw nothing. Her only hint was a whirring noise coming from above. She glanced up and saw what appeared to be a massive ship flying through the sky. She pointed at it.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, look! What the heck is-”</p><p>“Guess we’ve found our new goal,” the Servant declared.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey, so this is that other story I was talking about, I've been planning it for a while now and I'm super excited to see how it goes! I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone do anything for this pairing yet cause I just think it's so cute! Idk how many chapters this is gonna be, since they're obviously shorter than in-game chapters, but I do have the story mapped out sooo yeah, this and 'Swimming in Hope and Despair' are gonna be my priorities for now :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>